CBC Monkstown 24 St Mary's College 10:This had all the appearance of a 50-50 match-up. It didn't quite turn out that way as openside Andrew Brennan reeled off two tries in five minutes to guide CBC Monkstown to the last eight of the Powerade Leinster Schools Senior Cup at Donnybrook yesterday.
Initially, a sharp break by scrum-half Ben Mahon put CBC in behind. Hooker Dylan Hanney carried hard and tight-head Eoghan McKeever was on hand to use his brute strength for the opening try, converted by Mahon in the seventh minute.
St Mary’s were not too bothered about this setback, striking back immediately when the handy work of centre Ben McAuliffe was the key to putting full-back Terry Kennedy over on the left.
The far bigger CBC boys had confidence in the tight. It showed in their dominant scrum and when they opted to drive a 5-metre penalty for Brennan to launch for the line. Mahon was inch-perfect from the conversion to make it 14-5 in the 17th minute.
Then, Brennan scooped up an unprotected ball from the side of a St Mary’s scrum to accelerate away from a host of chasers from 40 metres out. Mahon converted.
When St Mary’s could get into a rhythm, they looked dangerous.
Their next sojourn into enemy territory found favour in the hands of replacement wing Fred Daly, ducking inside the cover to make it 21-10 just before the half hour.
The balance of power did not shift with the wind at St Mary’s backs on resumption. CBC were content to play it smart, keeping the ball well in hand.
They showed patience to draw a penalty and misguided confidence in going for the corner when Mahon was three-from-three with the boot.
St Mary’s just couldn’t access the ball with any fluency as a gusting wind, rain and biting cold blew in.
It played into the winners physical strength as the cold snap made handling a liability, Mahon hitting an injury-time penalty.
CBC MONKSTOWN: M Halwax; H Godson-Treacy, M Courtney, A Swan, S Smyth; C Cullinane, B Mahon; K Patterson, D Hanney, E McKeever, B Keavney, J McGrath, J Brown, A Brennan, M O’Maho ny (capt). Replacements: S Drummond for Smyth 51 mins; C McDonald for Keavney, S O’Donnell for Godson-Treacy both 61 mins.
ST MARY’S COLLEGE: T Kennedy; C Healion, K Caldwell, B McAuliffe, D Matthews; J Delany, M Fogarty; M Farrell, S O’Brien, N Davis, C Corcoran, H Diepman, R Kernan (capt), G Fitzgerald, T Lynch. Replacements: F Daly for Healion 7 mins; P Fogarty for Fitzgerald 51 mins; E Rochford for Corcoran 53 mins; C Dunne for Matthews 62 mins; J Finnegan for O’Brien, C Whelan for Farrell both 67 mins; B Hoey for M Fogarty, K Mannion for Davis both 69 mins. Referee: E Kenny, Leinster Branch.
